The White Reindeer – a ritual sacrifice to permafrost

The White Reindeer is a warmly absurd performance using the means of modern theatre and dance to depict a village community struggling to save its living environment. It is loosely based on the prize-winning film of Erik Blomberg (1952). In the film, a beautiful Sami maiden turns into a white reindeer due to a curse and kills all the men who fall in love with her. Under the direction of Hanna Kirjavainen, the myth of the cursed maiden, however, turns into a ritual sacrifice.

A frustrated village community somewhere in the Arctic North lives among constantly worsening environmental problems. When all the other means have been used, the villagers resort to an obscure lore about a ritual sacrifice to the spirit of the reindeer through which they try to appease the spirits of beyond and repair the damages caused to their relationship with the nature.

The performance is a plea for the fragile ecosystem of the arctic environment rendered without pathos, with a playful touch and a merciful compassion and smiling gently to the idealistic clumsiness of the human kind.

Documentary video interviews about the daily life of the reindeer herders filmed in Northern Komi 2014 become mingled in the collective, basic Finno-Ugric stream of consciousness of the performance.

The White Reindeer is a joint production of Kajaani City Theatre and Routa Company and it will premiere 8 October 2016 in Kajaani. The performances will take place in Kajaani in October and November, in Helsinki in December and in Syktyvkar in the Republic of Komi in Russia in January 2017.

Running time 1h 30min, no intermission.

Tickets € 24/17/12

Recommended age limit: + 12 years

Performances at the Kajaani Theatre in autumn 2016

Performances for school children (changes in the dates and times are possible)

Wed, 19 October at 12 a.m.
Thu, 20 October at 12 a.m.

More information and bookings for performances for school children tel. 044 710 0454.